If you're at all like me (and I have a strong suspicion that you, dear record collector, might be), then you enjoy a deep dive into the dark corners of music history AND you also love a good Novelty album. You grew up cherishing your Dr. Demento collections and World Wrestling Federation LP, but you also burned with questions about that Leonard Nimoy album your parents had next to the hi-fi in the living room. Well, there's a place for us and, of course, it's on the internet in the form of a podcast called Bizarre Albums. Hosted by drummer Tony Thaxton of Motion City Soundtrack, Bizarre Albums serves as a sort of VH1's Behind the Music for the novelties, oddities, and the just plain strange in the wide world of weird records. Since nothing could be farther up Amoeba's alley than celebrating the unexpected vinyl find, we tracked down Tony and asked him about his show and his own record collection.

Inside the store, the festivities kept going. Family Industries live silk-screened up a storm of tote bags and t-shirts, with all proceeds going to the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Hundreds of lucky shoppers received Amoeba swag bags. As always, limited edition Record Store Day titles were the focus of the day, along with extra special savings on turntables, posters, used DVDs and Blu-rays, mugs, and books. Read Part One for a full recap of the morning.

It's official - today, November 11, 2011, or "eleven, eleven, eleven" if you're quoting Christopher Guest's Jeff Beck-inspired character from the cult, mock-rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, is Nigel Tufnel Day!

Not too long ago a movement started via a very dedicated Tumblr page and a now nearly 22,000 member strong facebook page to declare 11/11/11 officially Nigel Tufnel Day. Well, we the people of Amoeba Music will not be waiting around for any authority with the proper jurisdiction to take the necessary actions to declare this day, November 11, 2001 officially Nigel Tufnel Day when we have every right to do so by the power invested in us by St. Hubbins - the patron saint of quality footwear, jazz blues/blues jazz enthusiasts and big-bottoms everywhere. Happy Nigel Tufnel Day already!

And so accordingly we honor a man who is not only a master of the saddest of all keys but Spinal Tap's six-string juggernaut and herald of heavy metal innovation with his custom amplifiers set to the eleventh volume setting instead of the standard ten, i.e "one louder", by tapping into a list of 11 memorable Nigel Tufnel quotes from This Is Spinal Tap. And while we've got you hooked into the spirit of the holiday, why not stop by one of our stores in person or online at Amoeba.com and pick up a copy of Tap's Smell The Glove (a.k.a. the This Is Spinal Tap soundtrack), or Break Like The Wind featuring hits like "Bitch School" and their singular, seasonal single "Christmas With The Devil", or perhaps Tap's latest release Back From the Dead - a CD/DVD combo packaged with a fold-out diorama featuring nineteen tracks, including essential Tappage Jazz Odesseys I-III.

Amoeba's Top 11 Nigel Tufnel quotes from This Is Spinal Tap

[On a review that says Spinal Tap is "treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry"] "That's just nitpicking, isn't it?"

"Look, this. This miniture bread, it like... I've been working with this now for about half an hour and i can't figure out... let's say I wanted a bite, right."

[on what he would do if he couldn't be a rock star] "Well, I suppose I could, uh, work in a shop of some kind, or... or do, uh, freelance, uh, selling of some sort of, uh, product."

"I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really."

"Well, this piece is called Lick My Love Pump."

Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

We couldn't ask for better weather this first day of summer here in the city by the bay, but half the world away on England's Salisbury plain druids don their dress whites and celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge, Britain's premier prehistoric monument, alongside fellow neo-pagans, new agers and a motley gathering of other crunchy hippie types (like poi dancers and hooping enthusiasts). The magic, mystery and mysticism associated with said sacred megalithic structure understandably commands a sense of awe and wonder among all walks of humankind, that is, when it isn't generating incredibly memorable jokes worth revisiting time and time again, like comedian Eddie Izzard's take on Stonehenge from his fabulous Dressed to Kill DVD (filmed in San Francisco no less) and Spinal Tap's staged shortcomings concerning their would-be comeback throwback hit as seen in the classic mock rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.

So, there's all these awfully tense feelings around the stuff like the ice mountains-- melting on the north and south poles? I forget what they're called but they sank the Poseid-no, wait that was a big wave. They sank the one that Leonardo DiCaprio was on. Ironically, he is really into green causes. Go Leo!
I bet all that drowning made you run out and buy a Prius. I rather like a Toyota myself, in general. If they were a band, I would buy their music. Beep beep. But that's bad because I am supposed to want to bicycle. Always. Everywhere.

Where was I? Okay, so there's going to be this really big show, a concert - about this global heat problem we have all of a sudden? (Like Live Aid, but it's about the sun burning us all up I guess. It's why we take your old AA batteries and sundry and recycle them, see?) Anyway, everyone is quite serious about this now that we aren't really being able to have Satsuma Mandarins, best fruit in the world, now that there's all this global warming. The damn growing season was iced out. Scary!

So, anyway, the big pop show with the fantastic Spinal Tap is happening over at Wembley - an English thing, if I got that right? Let me tell you, I've been there - not Wembley Arena - just the old UK, and they didn't like me one bit. I want some of you Brits to pop on here and let me give you what for. I'm just as cute as a button, there's no explaining your ways to me. Tsk, I say. (Except Pi. We miss you sweety.honey.baby.)

I admit that there's other save the planet shows going on (I just pictured Bob Geldof making out with Al Gore and it weren't a pretty sight) around the old globe, even up in Antarctica they say. Believe that when I see it! All under the same moniker.
But, we're talking about Spinal Tap. So this time they're calling the big show Live Earth, which is after all what we're aiming for. Gets right to the point, doesn't it? We're not likely to have a big show and call it Dead Earth if you catch my meaning. Say, have you seen that blazing TV show called Planet Earth? Discovery Channel!! If you were a car, you'd be a Toyota! That, people, is a big compliment. If you haven't seen it yet, you should buy an IMAX theatre and invite me over. I'll bring pop. Not really, I'd bring bottled water, but it's all the same, isn't it?